Normal Mode Analysis for Resistive Cylindrical Plasmas

Abstract The compressible, resistive MHD equations are linearized around an equilibrium with cylindrical symmetry and solved numerically as a complex eigenvalue problem. This normal mode code allows one to solve for very small resistivity γ≈10 -10 . The scaling of growth rates and layer width agrees very well with analytical theory. Especially, the influence of both current and pressure on the instabilities is studied in detail; the effect of resistivity on the ideally unstable internal kink is analyzed.

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